“Finally on August 27, Edward started his first canvas of the year. ...he had procrastinated, pleading no time for what Jo described as ‘the proper isolation for pictures.’ He had driven to Harwich several times ‘for architectural details,’ and now he was blocking out his idea in charcoal: 'There is a man at a desk between 2 corner windows & views outside from both of them & a lot of side wall outside building where man sits- so it's interior and exterior.’’
Levin 468

“Hopper's paintings do not report an actual event in the world but rather stage a re-imagined event in narrative pictoral terms. We are face to face with a painting that is presenting a staged drama, pulsating with emotional energy held in check - at the same time as intensified - by the physical composition. A painting by Hopper presents a world over which the artist has almost total control, preconceived and ordered to create the illusion of reality.”
Wagstaff 21

In Hopper’s entire work, excluding portraits, there are only three paintings with a solitary male figure. Here, a man sits at a desk without a phone or any evidence of work in progress and stares out. Can there be any doubt that Hopper sees himself in this figure?

Office In a Small City, 1953, oil on canvas, 28 x 40 inches

The Metropolital Museum of Art, NY, George A Hearn Fund, 1953, (53.183), Phoyograph © 1989 The Metropolitan Museum of Art